Field of the Invention
The invention relates to nutritional compositions that can assist a user with one or more of maintaining cardiovascular health, reducing the stress response by mitigating the response of the cardiovascular and endocrine systems to stress, improving physical performance, speeding recovery from exertion, restoring and maintaining electrolyte balance, promoting calm, and enhancing cognitive functioning.
Background
Firefighters, police officers, military personnel and athletes are often under stress, sometimes encountering several stressful experiences every day. The work of Hans Selye1 and others2,3 shows that chronic stress, if unmitigated, can result in a chronic hyperaroused state that leads to the deleterious effects of stress through an epigenetic mechanism. The science of epigenetics studies the effects of environmental factors, including an individual's cognitive responses to the environment and their associated physiological effects, on the pattern of gene expression in the body. These effects on gene expression, which directly affect one's physical and mental well-being, are produced in part through methylation of DNA, which is reversible4. 1 Selye H. 1985. The Nature of Stress. Basal Facts. 7(1):3-112 Chrousos G. P. 2009. Stress and disorders of the stress system. http://www.nature.com/nrendo/journal/v5/n7/full/nrendo.2009.106.html (Accessed Jul. 10, 2011)3 Schmidt U. Holsboer F. and Rein T. 2011. Epigenetic aspects of posttraumatic stress disorder. Disease Markers. 30:77-874 Weaver I C. 2009. Epigenetic effects of glucocorticoids. Seminars In Fetal & Neonatal Medicine. 14(3):143-50
Unmitigated stress can cause epigenetic alterations of gene expression, leading to the deleterious long-term physiological and cognitive effects of stress.
Many nutritional compositions have been created to try to optimize energy production, rehydration, and endurance. However, finding compositions that are desirable and optimal for consumption during prolonged exercise and/or exposure to stress has proven elusive.